I wanted to find a place that had a mix of people and architecture, so I made my way to downtown Redlands. Being that it's Sunday, the streets weren't too busy. Fortunately I did get a few people involved in my images. Oh...that reminds me. For those of you who don't know me...street photography is something I also struggle with. While I absolutely adore street photography and find myself jealous of the giftings of Elliott Erwitt, Henry Cartier-Bresson, and Scott Strazzante, I have often been terrified of photographing people on the street. We won't go into the psycho babble of why this fear exists, but it's something I've been well aware of for quite some time and it's something I've wanted to fight against. It is no doubt of mine that this sunny 16 project will teach me much more than lessons in exposure. Anyhow, back to the streets...
Today's sky was sunny but hazy, which meant I needed to shoot at f/11. I don't know why I was so suprised, but I felt like a giddy little girl when, with one click, a properly exposed photo shown itself on my LCD screen.
This first image was mostly full of direct sunlight with just a slight shadow on the wall of the building. With the camera set to an f/11 aperture, I sat and waited for people to enter the frame. Once I saw the man in blue making his way up the street I knew he was who I wanted to photograph. I made one photo of him alone as he walked into my frame from the left (which was what I previsioned), but decided to keep snapping while the other three people entered in from the right. I think the latter image worked better.
Next I made my way around the corner where I found some ivy growing underneath a wood porch. Because the ivy was in shade, my first reaction was to drop my shutter speed (for the past few years I almost always shoot at f/2.8, which has me in the habit of controlling my light with the shutter). I had completely forgotten about the sunny sixteen rule. I snapped a few images before I realized I needed to treat the shade as though I were now shooting on a cloudy day. After I got over my feeling like a dummy, I set my aperture to f/5.6 and put my shutter back to match my ISO. Magically, the exposure was correct...
Now that I was in full-on sunny 16 mode, I treated a nearby puddle with the appropriate settings...
Eventually I made my way to State Street, which is the main walking street downtown. Not too long after arriving, I found this little patch of light falling on a walkway that was otherwise covered in shade. Because I didn't want the patch of light overexposed, I played around between f/4 and f/5.6. Then, I waited for people. Eventually, I was pleasantly suprised with a pitbull named Cannon and his owner...
After making the photo, I thought to myself that I would've loved if these two had been walking the opposite direction, thus having the light cast on their faces. However, I really like the shadow on the ground and how it fills the patch of light perfectly.
Around another corner, I found some light to play with in an allyway. This was the only image I made hastily as it was very last minute that I noticed the man walking towards the light. I only had a few seconds to get in place and make it work. I was pretty happy with the result...
After about forty minutes of shooting, I decided to walk back to my car so that I could then get the images and blog ready and officially begin this project. I'm really excited with the images I made today, and I believe I'm on my way to improving my work. I've always loved days where I make photos, but today was particularly exciting. I'm happy to have begun this project and I can't wait to see what's to come. See you soon!
2 comments:
very cool.
esp the man walking the dog picture :)
Good stuff...love how the dog shadow filled the patch of light! Just adds an extra something special. Keep it up!
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